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Google’s AI-powered search feature, SGE (Search Generative Experience), is getting some new skills starting today. The AI feature, which introduces a conversation mode to search, is now going to be able to generate images using signals directly in the SGE, similar to Dell-E3’s support for rival Bing’s OpenAI. Additionally, SGE will now allow users to write drafts in SGE where you can customize the output to be longer or shorter or make the tone of writing more serious or casual.
The new features come in a series of rapid-fire updates to SGE as the pace of AI technology development accelerates. Over the past few months, SGE has already acquired new capabilities to do things like write AI-powered summaries and create definitions of unfamiliar terms, improving coding, adding travel and product search features, among other things.
With the new AI Image Creation feature, you can enter a hint as to what type of image you want, for example drawing, photo or painting. SGE will return four results directly into the SGE conversation experience. From there, you tap the images, which can be downloaded as .png files, or edit the prompt that creates the images to create a new set. Under the hood, the feature is powered by Google’s Imagen text-to-image model.
Image Credit: Google
The same feature will also be available when you use Google Image Search. As you scroll through the image search results, if you don’t find the photo you need, you’ll be able to create a new image using prompts from the box that appears within the results.
Since AI image creation has already led to some inappropriate content, Google is limiting its new image creation feature to users 18 and older, even though SGE recently released a new feature for 13-17 year olds in the US. Open to teenagers aged .
Image Credit: Google
The company is also thinking about how it can introduce this technology in a responsible way, which means it has added some strict filtering policies to the product, the company told TechCrunch. Google says these filters are intended to prevent the creation of images that may be “harmful, misleading, or explicit”, or that otherwise violate its prohibited uses policies for generative AI. It is also blocking the creation of any images that feature photorealistic faces and signs that mention the names of notable people – the block aims to prevent not only inappropriate content but also the spread of misinformation.
Of course, people are quite clever when it comes to messing with AI image generation tools to create obscene and otherwise crazy output, as was seen earlier this month when the AI image generation tools of both Meta and Bing Went viral about how they are being misused. Create inappropriate or shocking images, regardless of companies’ policies.
Google admits that even its tools may not be perfect — which is why they’re still, for starters, opt-in through Google Search Labs. They will also have a feedback mechanism so that users can report when the technology malfunctions or is misused. Still, the company thinks it has done a pretty good job with the implementation of its filters and believes that people may encounter more disruptions than they expect. (Sounds like a challenge!)
The images will also include metadata embedded in the files that identifies them as AI-generated as well as embedded watermarking that is invisible to the human eye. It is powered by SynthID, which was announced by Google Cloud and Google DeepMind in late August.
Another new feature is based on the SGE’s ability to serve as a writing assistant. Already, SGE can provide a written draft – which Google has integrated with the idea that users may want to write an email to companies whose ads or links they found through search. But now this draft writing feature can output different types of writing, either longer or shorter, or change the tone to be more serious or more casual.
Image Credit: Google
Both new features – alternative drafts and image creation – will also be accompanied by export options through SGE. In the former case, you can export your writing to Google Workspace apps like Gmail or Google Docs. Meanwhile, the images you create can be saved to Google Drive.
Image Credit: Google
Both features are rolling out to a small percentage of SGE users starting tomorrow and will then expand to a broader user base in the coming weeks. They will be available to those who have opted to use SGE through Google Search Labs and are so far only offered in English in the US, although SGE recently launched in India and Japan.
